Books are generally part of the norm. As a rule they are written by authors who occupy a certain place in the 'real' world The writing is designed to interest or entertain the public. People have developed certain expectations of books; they like those which offer to help and strengthen the self, to make it more contented and successful in the world, to reconcile the existing self to its present reality. Publishers are aware of those expectations and usually publish only those books that promise to interest and entertain a wide enough public as to bring in a profit. That is the present 'way of the world'. This book envisages a very much better world, and a very different, humantrue, way of life.
I think it is fair to say that, as a rule, books do not greatly change their readers. Most of us enjoy reading books which broadly harmonise with our own outlook, even though they may present a world different from ours in detail. We do study some books, dealing with certain special subjects, for the sake of facts or insights they contain and we wish to learn. We read, with detached interest, views and opinions which go to one extreme on our left, so to speak, and another extreme to our right, while we ourselves keep treading our old familiar middle path, little changed. In other words, we regard books as adjuncts of ourselves, or as objects that are subject to our whim, to be accepted or rejected, liked or disliked, noticed or unnoticed by us, at will.
We don't expect a book to be more closely representative of us than our own selves, showing that there is another, truer, potential self that we do not yet recognise. We don't expect a book to penetrate further into ourselves than we wish; to question our cherished beliefs; to undermine our defences and to move us well away from our old familiar path. This book does, or aims to do, all these things.
I am approaching you not as you presently are but as you truly, potentially are, and hope that you will approach my efforts not determined to maintain your present self but willing to seek and find your true self. I hope you will not let your present self turn you away from this book, but that you will allow the book to challenge your 'higher' mind; that you will listen to your own thoughts which then emerge.
Should you choose to ignore these words, that choice will be made by your conscious self, but it is likely that your 'higher' mind, i.e. your postconscious, will take them in despite that self. The function of the postconscious, which truly represents us, is truth, but its deductions are normally closed to consciousness. Since it is the same, or potentially the same mind in everybody, any well-developed postconscious that reveals its truth shall be revealing the actual or potential truth within any other postconscious. That is what this book is trying to do. It goes against convention but present convention is false. Above all else we need humantruth.
J.B.O.
Next: PROLOGUE